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What to do when someone rips off your site design

Brad FeldJuly 19, 2014 11:13 AM

Image Credit: sexycss

I recently received the following email:

I am in a bit of a dilemma and would really appreciate any insight you all have on what to do.

Last month, my team worked with a designer to create a new homepage for my startup. Yesterday, I saw that another company ripped off our entire site design. They have also just recently pivoted into doing exactly what we do.

You can compare the two sites here: [links redacted].

It doesn’t feel right that they can so brazenly steal someone else’s work like that. You would think they would have a reputation to uphold.

Anyway, my question for the group: How can we turn this negative into a positive for us?

My response was:

Welcome to the world. It sucks, but it happens all the time.

There are two approaches:

1. Ignore them and just kick their ass.

2. Make a big deal about it as a way to get more attention for you. Do this in a classy way. Don’t be whiny about it.

So you know, I generally choose option 1. I find that option 2 is very hard to execute and usually a distraction. But if you can do option 2 correctly, especially for a consumer service like yours, it can generate a lot of interest.

After a week or so, a draft blog post, and a little more back-and-forth, the sender concluded:

For a quick update on this front, I think I did want the noise, to hopefully drive more awareness and because I was still kinda mad.

But, after putting it out of my mind for a few days and focusing on making progress on our product and marketing strategy, I feel calmer about the whole thing. Best case scenario we embarrass them — which doesn’t seem as fun anymore now that I’m not as actively mad — and get some sympathy and signups. Worst case scenario it backfires on us. Either way it’s a distraction and a lot of noise that isn’t really my style.

Our team is better, our technology more scalable, our wit sharper. They are right in some ways to make their site a cheap knockoff of ours — our site is great. But they’re fighting a losing battle. So I’m gonna go with option A of ignoring it and kicking their ass.

So yeah, your advice ended up being right on. Thanks for suggesting I sleep on it for a few days and again just for being responsive and helpful overall — it really did mean a lot.

I was proud of this person. The high road is always more fun, especially when you toss boulders down on the person on the low road and crush them before they make any progress toward the top of the mountain.